Thursday, June 16, 2011

Satisfaction!

Upon getting married I have felt the responsibility to actually prepare meals instead of just eating a few gold fish and throwing a smoothie in the blender for dinner. Why wasn't I thinner throughout college?? Well of course that meager meal was always followed up by post meal rummaging through the pantry and fridge, a string cheese, yogurt, a few grapes. Then I would usually go out dancing for the evening and upon arrival home at 1 am follow up with a steaming glass of Pero, a few Triscuit's with cottage cheese, and some form of chocolate perhaps smothered in peanut butter. Ah yes, now the calories are adding up.

This "on the go" lifestyle was both time efficient and hassle free. However like I said, there is a twinge of guilt experienced when I expect Chris to fend for himself. So now I engage in the never ending quest for recipes. Not only must I account for the time it takes to prepare the meal but the post meal clean up, menu planning, and grocery shopping. Since I have less time now than I have had previously in my entire life I have three criteria for the perfect recipe:

1. Must be FAST to throw together
2. Must be DELICIOUS or why bother eating it
3. Must be NUTRITIOUS according to my own standards which ideally would be higher but are not. I shall outline them for you below:

  • Typically steer clear of red meat especially ground beef but do eat it occasionally
  • Typically don't make heavy pasta dishes
  • Preferably lots of greens, veges, and fruit
  • Love finding a raw recipe but I have found few that meet the DELICIOUS standard
  • Try to cook 50% of dinners that are meatless every week if not more
  • Avoid cooking with many processed foods

So there you go, my current food standards, judge them as you will it is beside the point of this blog post. I find it hard enough to find recipes meeting my current criteria, but when I do... SUCCESS!!! Oh the joy and satisfaction! Delicious, ridiculously fast and easy, and relatively guil
t free! I don't want my blog to turn into some type of food blog but I experienced this exact joy tonight and I feel obligated to share what may be a gem of a website. We made maple mustard dressing and threw it on a bed of mixed greens topped with sliced bosc pears, fresh blueberries, sliced almonds, and a sprinkle of feta cheese. It was BOMB! And it only took about 5 minutes to throw together with a piece of crusty bread toasted on the side. I only made a half recipe of the dressing if anyone decides to give it a try it was beyond plenty.

I have briefly glanced over the blog I stole this recipe from and it looks very promising! Ah, so satisfied. On top of that great find today I also got a 100% on my evidence based practice exam today! Considering 67% of the class got an A or A- it's not all that impressive but I was 1 out of 5 that got the perfect 100%. Again so satisfying right? All the torturous reading of scientific journal articles, pain staking thesis writing, research classes, and statistics work from grad school finally paid off :) Okay, guess it's not the first time it's paid off but lets just say it was overall a very satisfying day.

PS- Wasn't trying to make Chris look helpless and lazy. Chris always does the dishes, plans the meals, does the grocery shopping, bakes the banana bread, scrubs the floor, darns the socks, etc. Okay minus the last two but he would if I asked :)

3 comments:

Vanessa, Zac and Noah said...

That looks yummy! I love to cook and am always trying new recipes...here are 2 family faves that may be up your ally!

Greek Salad
4 tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
½ green pepper, diced
¼ cup pitted kalamata olives, halved (tip: cheapest place to buy is Trader Joes)
¼ cup red onion, diced
1/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled
2 T fresh Italian parsley, chopped
3 T olive oil
1 T red wine vinegar
1 t oregano
Salt and pepper

Mix first seven ingredients together in medium sized bowl. In a small bowl mix oil, vinegar, and seasonings. Add dressing before serving.


Chicken Greek Souvlaki
1.5 lbs chicken breast, cubed
½ cup olive oil
¼ cup lemon juice
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp pepper
Skewers

Mix oil, lemon juice, and spices in large plastic zip bag. Add the chicken to the marinade. Place in fridge overnight or for at least 4 hours.
Place chicken on skewers(soak skewers in water for about 10 minutes before adding meat to prevent scorching.) Grill or broil about 6 minutes and then flip skewer and cook 6 more minutes.

Bowtie Pasta Chicken Salad
Salad ingredients:
16 oz. bowtie pasta
1 ½ cups cooked chicken, cubed
5 oz. fresh spinach
1/3 cup Craisins
1/3 cup honey roasted peanuts
3-11 oz can mandarin oranges
2 T fresh parsley, chopped

Dressing ingredients:
½ cup olive oil
1/3 cup teriyaki sauce
1/3 cup white vinegar
2 T sugar
Salt and pepper

Wisk dressing ingredients together and then pour over cooked pasta. Marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Then add the remaining salad ingredients and serve.

Anonymous said...

You need to become a crockstar. Super easy, fast (and slow - cooking wise), mostly delicious, and if you use the crock pot liners, no clean up!

Stephanie said...

You already know my track record for cooking....but I might have a few gems you would like. I'll email them to you soon... You do have an awesome husband that would jump to the moon for you!